20/07/2026
Johann Varrone – der wichtigste Bildinterpret der frühen Balearenzeichnungen
Johann Varrone – the foremost visual interpreter of Ludwig Salvator’s early Balearic drawings
Als der junge Ludwig Salvator nach seinem ersten Aufenthalt auf Ibiza und Formentera im Jahr 1867 die bildliche Ausstattung seines Balearenwerkes vorbereitete, vertraute er die farbige Ausarbeitung seiner vor Ort entstandenen Zeichnungen und Studien zwölf ausgewählten Künstlern an. Einer von ihnen nahm dabei eine herausragende Stellung ein: Johann – auch Giovanni – Varrone.
Der 1832 in Bellinzona/Tessin geborene und an der Wiener Akademie ausgebildete Maler, Aquarellist und Illustrator war auf topografisch genaue Landschafts- und Ortsansichten spezialisiert. Seine Stärke lag darin, Natur, Architektur und räumliche Zusammenhänge präzise zu erfassen, ohne dabei auf atmosphärische Wirkung zu verzichten. Damit entsprach seine Arbeitsweise in besonderem Maße Ludwig Salvators eigenem Anspruch, Landschaften und Lebenswelten wissenschaftlich zuverlässig und zugleich in ihrer „leuchtenden Wirklichkeit“ wiederzugeben.
Von den insgesamt fünfzig farblithografischen Tafeln des ersten Bandes „Die alten Pityusen“ führte Varrone nicht weniger als siebzehn nach den Originalaufnahmen des Erzherzogs und unter dessen persönlicher Leitung aus. Damit zeichnete er für mehr als ein Drittel des gesamten Farbtafelzyklus verantwortlich und war der mit Abstand meistbeschäftigte Künstler des Unternehmens.
Zu seinen Motiven gehörten weite Landschafts- und Küstenpanoramen ebenso wie Dörfer, Straßen, Tore, Türme, Festungsmauern und bäuerliche Architektur. Varrone gestaltete unter anderem:
„Ibiza von der Meerseite“,
„Das Castillo vom Turme von Santa Maria la Mayor aus“,
„Bei der Puerta de Soto“,
„San José“, „San Augustin“, „San Juan“ und „San Vicente Ferrer“,
das „Tal von San Antonio“,
das „Tal von La Bricha“,
die Salinen der Sierra de la Fuente de la Pez
sowie die Estanques von San Francisco Javier auf Formentera.
Selbst ein Bauernhausinterieur und eine Drehmühle wurden ihm anvertraut – ein Hinweis darauf, dass Varrone nicht nur als Landschaftsmaler, sondern als vielseitiger künstlerischer Dokumentarist geschätzt wurde.
Seine herausragende Beteiligung dürfte kein Zufall gewesen sein. Varrone verfügte über Erfahrung mit wissenschaftlichen Illustrationen, Buchpublikationen und offiziellen Dokumentationsaufträgen. Er verstand es, vorhandene Skizzen in klar aufgebaute, druckfähige Kompositionen zu übertragen, ohne deren topografische Aussage zu verfälschen.
So wurde Johann Varrone zum bedeutendsten bildnerischen Partner Ludwig Salvators bei der Entstehung des ersten Balearenbandes. Seine Tafeln prägen bis heute ganz wesentlich unser visuelles Bild von Ibiza und Formentera im 19. Jahrhundert.
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When the young Archduke Ludwig Salvator began preparing the illustrations for his monumental work on the Balearic Islands following his first stay on Ibiza and Formentera in 1867, he entrusted twelve selected artists with the task of developing his drawings and studies made on location into fully coloured compositions. One of them occupied a particularly prominent position: Johann—also known as Giovanni—Varrone.
Born in Bellinzona/Tessin in 1832 and trained at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, Varrone was a painter, watercolourist and illustrator who specialised in topographically precise landscapes and views of towns and villages. His particular strength lay in his ability to record nature, architecture and spatial relationships with great accuracy, while still preserving a strong atmospheric effect. His artistic approach therefore corresponded especially well to Ludwig Salvator’s own ambition to depict landscapes and ways of life with scientific reliability and, at the same time, in their “luminous reality.”
Of the fifty colour-lithographic plates contained in the first volume, Die alten Pityusen, Varrone executed no fewer than seventeen after the Archduke’s original studies and under his personal supervision. He was therefore responsible for more than one third of the entire cycle of colour plates and was by far the most extensively employed artist involved in the project.
His subjects included expansive landscapes and coastal panoramas, as well as villages, streets, gateways, towers, fortification walls and rural architecture. Among the works assigned to Varrone were:
Ibiza from the Sea,
The Castillo Seen from the Tower of Santa Maria la Mayor,
Near the Puerta de Soto,
San José, San Augustin, San Juan and San Vicente Ferrer,
The Valley of San Antonio,
The Valley of La Bricha,
The Salt Pans of the Sierra de la Fuente de la Pez,
and The Estanques Seen from San Francisco Javier on Formentera.
He was even entrusted with the interior of a farmhouse and a rotary mill—evidence that Varrone was valued not only as a landscape painter, but also as a versatile artistic documentarian.
His prominent role was probably no coincidence. Varrone had experience in scientific illustration, book publishing and official documentation projects. He knew how to transform existing sketches into clearly structured, print-ready compositions without compromising their topographical accuracy.
Johann Varrone thus became Ludwig Salvator’s most important artistic collaborator in the creation of the first Balearic volume. To this day, his plates continue to shape our visual image of Ibiza and Formentera in the nineteenth century.
Johann Varrone – the foremost visual interpreter of Ludwig Salvator’s early Balearic drawings
When the young Archduke Ludwig Salvator began preparing the illustrations for his monumental work on the Balearic Islands following his first stay on Ibiza and Formentera in 1867, he entrusted twelve selected artists with the task of developing his drawings and studies made on location into fully coloured compositions. One of them occupied a particularly prominent position: Johann—also known as Giovanni—Varrone.
Born in Milan in 1832 and trained at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, Varrone was a painter, watercolourist and illustrator who specialised in topographically precise landscapes and views of towns and villages. His particular strength lay in his ability to record nature, architecture and spatial relationships with great accuracy, while still preserving a strong atmospheric effect. His artistic approach therefore corresponded especially well to Ludwig Salvator’s own ambition to depict landscapes and ways of life with scientific reliability and, at the same time, in their “luminous reality.”
Of the fifty colour-lithographic plates contained in the first volume, Die alten Pityusen, Varrone executed no fewer than seventeen after the Archduke’s original studies and under his personal supervision. He was therefore responsible for more than one third of the entire cycle of colour plates and was by far the most extensively employed artist involved in the project.
His subjects included expansive landscapes and coastal panoramas, as well as villages, streets, gateways, towers, fortification walls and rural architecture. Among the works assigned to Varrone were:
Ibiza from the Sea,
The Castillo Seen from the Tower of Santa Maria la Mayor,
Near the Puerta de Soto,
San José, San Augustin, San Juan and San Vicente Ferrer,
The Valley of San Antonio,
The Valley of La Bricha,
The Salt Pans of the Sierra de la Fuente de la Pez,
and The Estanques Seen from San Francisco Javier on Formentera.
He was even entrusted with the interior of a farmhouse and a rotary mill—evidence that Varrone was valued not only as a landscape painter, but also as a versatile artistic documentarian.
His prominent role was probably no coincidence. Varrone had experience in scientific illustration, book publishing and official documentation projects. He knew how to transform existing sketches into clearly structured, print-ready compositions without compromising their topographical accuracy.
Johann Varrone thus became Ludwig Salvator’s most important artistic collaborator in the creation of the first Balearic volume. To this day, his plates continue to shape our visual image of Ibiza and Formentera in the nineteenth century.
